AG Horne Announces Sentencing of Dr. Corina Hollander

PHOENIX (Monday, May 2, 2011) -- Attorney General Tom Horne today announced that Dr. Corina Hollander, DPM, a podiatrist in Tucson, Ariz. was sentenced to 33 months in the Arizona Department of Corrections stemming from her conviction involving various charges. Hollander also received a 5 years probation sentence that will follow her prison sentence.

Hollander was indicted on charges in July of 2010 with 7 other individuals stemming from her coordination of a large scale prescription drug fraud. Hollander pled guilty on March 30, 2011 to attempted conspiracy, attempted trafficking in the identity of another person, attempted fraud schemes, and obtaining a narcotic drug by fraud.

The charges, filed June 28, 2010 in Pima County were a result of a joint investigation conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Tucson Tactical Diversion Squad, the Attorney General’s Special Investigations Section, the Attorney General’s Health Care and Abuse Section, and the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General.

The investigation produced evidence of illicit drug use both at her home and at her office. A search warrant conducted on her home and office produced evidence of a large scale prescription drug fraud and evidence that Hollander was distributing fraudulent prescriptions to non-patients for fraudulent purposes.

In addition, Hollander was also using the names of patients and members of her staff’s family to write out fraudulent prescriptions under their names. Hollander and two employees were then filling the fraudulent prescriptions at local pharmacies.

Her two office employees, Kenneth Morris and Aaron Garner, have already pled guilty and been sentenced. Morris was sentenced to 6 months in the county jail as part of a 5 year probation sentence. Aaron Garner was sentenced to 1.5 years in the Department of Corrections and will be serving an additional probation sentence upon his release.

The case was prosecuted by the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Section in the Criminal Division of the Attorney General’s Office in Tucson.

The Podiatry Board became aware of DEA's investigation on April 20, 2010. On April 23, 2010 Dr. Hollander's license was summarily suspended. She later accepted a voluntary agreement for the surrender of her license which became effective on August 11, 2010.